1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tag testing device, a tag testing method, and a tag testing program that detects a defective non-contact integrated circuit (IC) tag from a plurality of non-contact IC tags by exposing the non-contact IC tags to radio waves or electromagnetic waves. More particularly, the present invention relates to a tag testing device, a tag testing method, and a tag testing program that can increase the testing speed of the non-contact IC tags and can test the non-contact IC tags while being attached to a tag sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a manufacturing process of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags (hereinafter, simply “tags”), the tags are tested by transmitting radio waves or electromagnetic waves (hereinafter, simply “radio waves”) to each tag and confirming the tag response. In the aforementioned testing method, a device that transmits or receives the radio waves is placed inside a radio wave shield box (hereinafter, “shield box”), and each of the tags that are to be tested is sent one by one to the shield box to test whether the tag is non-defective. If the shield box is not used, a plurality of tags on the tag sheet receive the transmitted radio waves, and all of the tags that receive the radio waves respond to the radio waves. As a result, even with use of an anti-collusion function, a tag sheet location of a tag not functioning properly (hereinafter, “defective tag”) cannot be identified.
In a tag manufacturing process, a large number of tags are formed on one sheet. However, when using the aforementioned tag testing method, the tags formed on each sheet (hereinafter, “tag sheet”) are separated before each tag is tested. When testing a very large number of tags, tag testing needs to be carried out at a particularly high speed. Various methods of increasing the tag testing speed have been known.
For example, a technology to increase the tag testing speed is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,291, in which each of the tags to be tested is individually placed on a conveyor belt or a disk shaped rotating body, and each tag is sequentially sent to the shield box. However, since the technology disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,291 uses a testing method in which tags are tested one by one, the testing speed can only be increased to a limited extent, even by increasing the speed of the conveyor belt or the rotating speed of the rotating body. In other words, the technology disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,291 does not sufficiently increase the testing speed. Moreover, in the technology disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,291, each tag needs to be separated from the tag sheet before testing. Thus, the tag sheet in the tag manufacturing process cannot be tested, if the tags are still attached to the tag sheet.
Thus, there is a requirement of a tag testing device that can increase the tag testing speed and test the tags while being attached to the tag sheet.